I will start this with the caveat that I am not a big fan of cheese, vegan or otherwise. Even before I went vegan, I was never a big fan of cheese, so I will be very upfront with the fact that I don’t really care for cheese. Cheddar is pretty much all I am interested in – anything else and I am out. But I am trying to branch out a bit and try new things, so I thought it best to start with something simple.
I do love cream cheese – probably the only cheese I have ever actually enjoyed – and with the new Squeaky Bean salmon slices I have been enjoying salmon and cream cheese bagels as a way to feel a little bit fancy in my week. Now I find that most vegan cream cheeses are very bland, in that they are just cream cheese. I don’t know how to really describe the flavour aside from…creamy? cheesy? I think everyone reading this can understand how cream cheese tastes. So moving on…
Cathedral City was always a go to brand in my family so I thought I would be safe to try their new mature cheddar cream cheese spread. As someone who isn’t super keen on a strong cheese flavour, this was very much borderline for me. It is a very strong cheese flavour – far more than your standard cream cheese – but it isn’t so strong as to be overpowering and unpleasant. It was quite a shock at first but I do admit it does elevate my cream cheese bagels just that little bit more because of the taste. It does also have quite a smooth texture to it, which is exactly what you want from cream cheese.
My downside for this though is that it is not as smooth as I would have hoped. It does get quite hard when kept in the fridge and I did find that trying to spread this cheese on my bagels is usually anything other than smooth – it can be quite clumpy and I find I have to leave it out of the fridge for a few minutes before I even attempt to spread any of it because it gets too solid in the fridge. It isn’t really a deal breaker for me, but just something to be aware of. It is also, therefore, a lot thicker than other vegan cream cheeses out there, so it may be a personal preference as to how thick you actually like your cream cheese to be.
With Cathedral City being quite a big brand name, this product is of course quite expensive compared to the other cream cheese options out there. This cost me £3 from Tesco and whilst this is only slightly more expensive than own brand vegan options (50p at most), it is still more expensive. personally, I think I would only get this over the other options if I wanted something a bit stronger in flavour or needed it for a recipe, as I do prefer the overall texture of the other cream cheeses out there. But it very much will be a personal preference if you do want to try this.
Taylor Talks Vegan 